A paranormal research team discovers the ghost of a little boy in a run down (i.e., unmopped floors) apartment building. They set up shop and keep tabs on the little dead fellow, who appears every night at the same time, sits in the corner on the floor and says something. No one can hear him because hey, ghost words, people.

So they bring in a police sniper with extremely sharp vision and the ability to read lips. He translates the ghost boy’s verbiage and follows the Casper-esque tyke on a journey across town. Problem is, you’re not supposed to look in his opaque eyes or you’ll be converted into being dead. Okay, that just gooned me out.

At the journey’s end the lip-reader starts to piece together the clues surrounding the boy’s death. This involved the kid having MTS (multiple tumor syndrome and probably itchy butt), which leaves him with boils constantly boiling up on his face. The kids at school won’t be friends with little Yao (pronounced “Yeow!”), so he does a full gainer off the school roof. And hey, wasn’t that his mother outside urging him on?

While this is hitting the fan, the scientists, funded by a for-profit-only company, invent the Menger Sponge, which gives them the control over gravity. This all factors in, so be friggin’ patient. The head scientist is a cripple with an artificial leg and the other one rotting away like something that rots. He’s obsessed with the dead kid and the sponge as it holds the key to his own death wish, probably due to that leg thing.

As they get closer to the truth and actually locate the kid’s buried body, things get even more weird — i.e., a barely visible strand of a shiny substance that provides a trail to where the dead kid goes. This is where the Silk’s (2006) title comes from, the band of energy between the living and the dead. I would’a called it Hell Rope or Spooky Putty, but no one in the movies EVER listens to me.

Once the dead kid’s mother is found comatose in a hospital, the secret is unraveled. But something just happened — coma mom is now dead mom…and goes after anyone associated with her kid. This is where the sponge comes in. While it’s not to be used to clean off stuff (dishes, counter tops, blood gushing out of necks), it does allow the user to walk on the ceiling. (Upside down, without your keys falling out of your pocket because of that whole “manipulating gravity” thing.) It can also be used to “trap” the ghost kid. Now mom’s REALLY p*ssed.

This situation builds to a low-boil climax. But even though you might’ve been hoping for ghost mayhem and the eating of faces, it works more on your mind. The deleted scenes and alternate ending should’ve been left in as they’re pretty cool and a bit more bloody. Bloody’s good. Silk is eerie, not scary, like, I don’t know…a sponge, for instance. If you think about it long enough, those things can goon you out.